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John Derbyshire

madforsailing talks to the man with the plan - the Olympic Team Manager

It's become clear over the past few weeks that the support programme put in place by the RYA for the British Olympic sailing team is absolutely world class. And not just in comparison to other sailing teams, this operation wouldn't embarrass any sport. The men behind it are the RYA's new Secretary General and former Racing Manager, Rod Carr, and out on the front-line, Olympic Team Manager, John Derbyshire. With the most successful British sailing team ever to grace an Olympic regatta now packing to go home, madforsailing spoke to the man at the heart of Team GBR.
mfs - the Games have obviously gone really well, but has it all gone according to plan?
JD - I’ve just been reflecting on that! The plan that we had, which essentially started four years ago and has been evolved each year that we’ve been out here, has gone exactly as I would have liked it to have gone. I don’t think I expected the results to be as good as they are, knowing the nature of sport, but in terms of planning it has gone exactly as we wanted. We have put in the coaches to provide the right level of support, both technical and moral, and to provide all the elements that the sailors wanted to make the regatta as normal as possible. I think the team has been able to concentrate on the sailing itself and it’s all gone well.
mfs - You mention the support that the team had, both technical and moral, do you feel that that was a real factor in their success at these Games?
JD - Yes. Definitely. When the accreditation rules came out for the Games and we realised that they were going to allow coach boats on the water, that was an

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